Diary of an Arcade Employee

Mary Philbin

A huge thanks to our friends over at Monster Crazy for this incredible production still for the silent horror classic, the Phantom of the Opera. Released in 1925 and starring Mary Philbin and the legendary Lon Chaney, the actor who was billed as the man of a 1,000 faces, the theatrical adaption of the literary masterpiece by Gaston Leroux continues to impress movie fans.

It was re-released in 1929 as a sound picture, using Vitaphone and disks by Western Electric. It is estimated that 40% of the film had to be re-shot for synchronous sound while the remainder of the film was either dubbed over or had music added. During the re-shoots Lon Chaney was not available so Universal Pictures dubbed dialogue over the scenes featuring the Phantom’s shadow. It is believed that Phillips Smalley (A Day at the Races) was hired for these readings.

The Phantom of the Opera was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1998 as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”